My Gonzo-esque best friend just returned from one of his performance art pieces at a nightclub where he ate a Chick-Fil-A sandwich out of another guy's mouth. Luckily it wasn't pre-chewed. Unfortunately it was still disgusting. At least the guy was moderately attractive.

Not always. Sometimes it's more like "why aren't you having some perspective?" Hollywood does have double standards about who they are terrified of offending and who they just don't care about.

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The problem is that a LOT of writers are very angry and want to vent against those they find oppressive. Most of it is mouth piece. Now, I don't think the common Christian is the target, just the far far far right militant one that wants to take over the country and oppress even their own loyal followers. Also those who they blame for Bush's re-election.

Still, I see Muslims as villains in NCIS all the time. I guess it's true that no one really watches that show.

All and all, why are there so few stories of common Christians pointing out hypocrisy and religious elitism among those that DO want to harm others to make a supremacy? THAT'S the story we need. Taking back Christianity from the oppressive culture that ONLY they have a right to exist, all the while mangling the word of God to get votes and push their agendas.

What really upsets me most about this controversy is that I've been told Chik-Fil-A is actually pretty good (we don't have them in Canada) and now I'll never be able to try their chicken sandwiches without feeling horribly guilty.

I live in Canada, where we watch these sorts of pitched cultural battles unfold south of our border in the U.S. with a combination of bemusement and horror. Gay marriage has been legal here for quite sometime. We had a big (and I think healthy) debate about it, the courts ruled it was legal and then everybody sort of collectively shrugged and went back to whatever it was they were doing before all the fuss began.

In Canada gay couples are entitled to a legal (civil) marriage recognized by the state, but a church cannot be compelled to marry a gay couple if it is against its doctrine (some churches marry gay couples, some don't). It's a nice compromise that balanced the rights of gay couples against the need to protect churches and religion in general from government interference. Gay couples receive the equal treatment under the law that's enshrined in our constitution while simultaneously a church's religious freedom (also enshrined as an absolute right in our constitution) is respected.

The most vocal activists on both sides of the issue here are probably not completely happy with this arrangement, which is probably the surest sign that we've reach a decent compromise. I'm sure some people see this approach as a cop-out and unacceptable, but even our religious, extremely conservative Prime Minister who practically worships at the alter of right-wing Republican ideals has emphatically stated that the gay marriage issue is closed here and will never be reopened.

Then again, I also live in a land of strict gun control and government-provided free healthcare, which I'm told is what some Conservative Evangelicals roughly imagine **** on earth to be like.

Seriously though, I think that religious freedom is just as important as individual rights. Often in a debate like this people forget that having a certain right does not give you permission to trample the rights of someone else. I'm personally pro-gay marriage, but I also think Christians have the right to make a legitimate theological argument when they claim marriage as a traditional Hetrosexual institution, just as they can make theological arguments against premartial sex or abortion. At the same time, they need to remember that Western Democracies are not ruled from the pulpit (we tried variations on that for several centuries...it didn't go very well) so those arguments need to be confined to the realm of theology and religion and are moot points in a civil rights discussion.

What really upsets me most about this controversy is that I've been told Chik-Fil-A is actually pretty good (we don't have them in Canada) and now I'll never be able to try their chicken sandwiches without feeling horribly guilty.

I live in Canada, where we watch these sorts of pitched cultural battles unfold south of our border in the U.S. with a combination of bemusement and horror. Gay marriage has been legal here for quite sometime. We had a big (and I think healthy) debate about it, the courts ruled it was legal and then everybody sort of collectively shrugged and went back to whatever it was they were doing before all the fuss began.

In Canada gay couples are entitled to a legal (civil) marriage recognized by the state, but a church cannot be compelled to marry a gay couple if it is against its doctrine (some churches marry gay couples, some don't). It's a nice compromise that balanced the rights of gay couples against the need to protect churches and religion in general from government interference. Gay couples receive the equal treatment under the law that's enshrined in our constitution while simultaneously a church's religious freedom (also enshrined as an absolute right in our constitution) is respected.

The most vocal activists on both sides of the issue here are probably not completely happy with this arrangement, which is probably the surest sign that we've reach a decent compromise. I'm sure some people see this approach as a cop-out and unacceptable, but even our religious, extremely conservative Prime Minister who practically worships at the alter of right-wing Republican ideals has emphatically stated that the gay marriage issue is closed here and will never be reopened.

Then again, I also live in a land of strict gun control and government-provided free healthcare, which I'm told is what some Conservative Evangelicals roughly imagine **** on earth to be like.

Seriously though, I think that religious freedom is just as important as individual rights. Often in a debate like this people forget that having a certain right does not give you permission to trample the rights of someone else. I'm personally pro-gay marriage, but I also think Christians have the right to make a legitimate theological argument when they claim marriage as a traditional Hetrosexual institution, just as they can make theological arguments against premartial sex or abortion. At the same time, they need to remember that Western Democracies are not ruled from the pulpit (we tried variations on that for several centuries...it didn't go very well) so those arguments need to be confined to the realm of theology and religion and are moot points in a civil rights discussion.

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I live in the heart of San Francisco, widely considered the most liberal city in America, and what you've described is exactly what everyone I know has been working toward. Churches aren't compelled to marry anyone for any reason if they don't want to.

There is this irrational fear that the legal acceptance of gay equality will somehow encroach on religious freedoms. The only reasonable concern I've heard concerns adoption. I was adopted through Catholic charities and some of these organizations receive federal dollars. I don't know why, but they do. Could they discriminate against gay couples and still receive government money? I don't know the answer to that. I'd say give the Catholics what they want if that happened to be the only thing standing in the way of gay marriage! Unfortunately, the debate seems to go much deeper here.

Canada is a LOT better off as a country, as a nation, as a society than the U.S. is, not just as far as gays are concerned, but there's also a lot less racial tension in Canada as well, and that's another area where it seems like we can never grow out of either, it's like even to this day in America, many whites still feel like they're the superior master race, and many blacks still act like they're being degraded and oppressed, and really, having Obama in office hasn't helped race relations at all.

There is this irrational fear that the legal acceptance of gay equality will somehow encroach on religious freedoms. The only reasonable concern I've heard concerns adoption. I was adopted through Catholic charities and some of these organizations receive federal dollars. I don't know why, but they do. Could they discriminate against gay couples and still receive government money? I don't know the answer to that. I'd say give the Catholics what they want if that happened to be the only thing standing in the way of gay marriage! Unfortunately, the debate seems to go much deeper here.

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There is currently a big issue in Ontario (the Province where I live) over Catholic Schools trying to ban "Gay-straight alliance" clubs. The Catholic Schools here are part of the public education system (due to some Constitutional issues that go back to the 19th century that I don't pretend to understand). No one told them to change their beliefs, they just had to allow the clubs, which are designed to promote tolerance, which ironically, is a important Catholic value.

Nevertheless, the Catholic Church and the Catholic School Boards pushed back hard against this but have been told by the ministry of education that irregardless of their beliefs, they had to permit the clubs as part of a provincial anti-bullying campaign. I think the issue has been settled...the clubs are accepted, but they had to be called something else, which seems silly.

The principle at work was that if an organization takes secular money from the government, they have to play by secular rules. This why I think religious schools and agencies should generally speaking not be government funded, it's much better for everyone involved if they are left to function independently within their belief system.

Our Premier (kind of like a Governor) is a devout Catholic and the Church seems to regularly threaten him with ex-communication when he supports policies they deem to be contrary to Catholic teaching for the sake of separation of church and state. It would be hilariously silly if it wasn't so sad that they try to bully the man using his faith.

Canada is a LOT better off as a country, as a nation, as a society than the U.S. is, not just as far as gays are concerned, but there's also a lot less racial tension in Canada as well, and that's another area where it seems like we can never grow out of either, it's like even to this day in America, many whites still feel like they're the superior master race, and many blacks still act like they're being degraded and oppressed, and really, having Obama in office hasn't helped race relations at all.

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To be fair, we have issues here too. On some issues, like crime prevention, we're actually becoming much less progressive than the United States. We are definitely a more socialist country and generally uncomfortable letting people hunt with assault weapons.

I don't really believe that many White Americans believe they are a "superior master race". Race relations is a really complex issue and it's frequently exploited by both the left and right for political gain.

They're spending millions and millions building new prisons here and making prisoners serve longer sentences even though our crime rates are at historic lows. Our Prime Minister had the Republican Governor of Texas (Texas!) write him a letter arguing against our new "tough-on-crime" laws because Texas and other U.S. states have tried the approach to crime that we're using and it doesn't work.

Well, Texans act like they're big shots anyway, they used to be their own country, and they certainly act like one.

Texas aside, crime rates down here are really high, heck our very own Kevin had Muley make a very "funny 'cause it's true" joke about the Super Bowl when he remarked those playing were, "The Steelers and the Packers? Sounds like shoppers at a Memphis mall" and he's on the opposite side of the same state I live in... on this side, we've had mass shootings in private homes, schools, malls, and even churches and hospitals, and I can't even begin to tell you how many times you hear about meth lab busts on the news, it's almost like an everyday thing. I don't hear nearly as much bad things happening in any part of Canada compared to all that goes on down here: Columbine, the Batman Movie Massacre, among other things.

Then again, a lot of Americans hold this stereotype that Canadians are a bunch of wimps anyway... not saying I agree, but that's probably one reason why the Governor of Texas don't agree with how you guys handle crime.

Canada is a LOT better off as a country, as a nation, as a society than the U.S. is, not just as far as gays are concerned, but there's also a lot less racial tension in Canada as well, and that's another area where it seems like we can never grow out of either, it's like even to this day in America, many whites still feel like they're the superior master race, and many blacks still act like they're being degraded and oppressed, and really, having Obama in office hasn't helped race relations at all.

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(Snickers profusely). Anyone thinking having a not white guy in office would improve race relations is completely out of their minds. Though I think to generalize every Republican as a racist because they don't like them is pretty idiotic. There is some of it, that birth certificate crap (which was a dumb conspiracy theory that started out as a bunch of conservatives passive aggressively making insane theories about how he could be impeached on technicalities)... but the main fact is, they don't like him because he's not one of their guys politically. I'm just going to end it there... though I am LOVING this new thing where only black people are racists.I could go on about how they chose Herman Cain as a subversion as a "Oh, you only like women, blacks, gays, and other people we've historically oppressed if they agree with you." Then he was caught being a dirty old man, and that would have hurt them substantially.

There is this irrational fear that the legal acceptance of gay equality will somehow encroach on religious freedoms. The only reasonable concern I've heard concerns adoption. I was adopted through Catholic charities and some of these organizations receive federal dollars. I don't know why, but they do. Could they discriminate against gay couples and still receive government money? I don't know the answer to that. I'd say give the Catholics what they want if that happened to be the only thing standing in the way of gay marriage!

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Religious institutions NOT only get tax exempt status, but money from the government. AND they want to have a major say in Constitutional law (basically contradicting half of it).

I forget who said it, but if that's the case, they should have two options. Either drop tax exempt status and have what they believe God's word is law as the law of the land, or as Fry put it, "Shut Up and take [the government's] money!" I especially love how they liken having to give employees, especially non-Catholic ones, government money to get access to contraception (especially when contraception does other things that I can't talk about) to the whole sale slaughter of Jews, Gypsies, Gays, cripples, and basically anyone who wasn't white, blonde, and perfect of bod by a certain psychotic art school reject.

And, as far as the Catholic Church goes, it has centuries of freaking dirt on it's hands. The Crusades? That was them. The church wants everyone to pretend that crap didn't happen, yet they cling to such archaic ideals themselves. I really think South Park did a justice when they mocked them in the episode about the molestations. Change isn't bad at all.... it's necessary to keeping what they're saying relevant so they don't lose followers that disagree with their teachings.

Constitutionally, the law of the land trumps the law of God because not everyone can agree on what those laws are, and not everyone follows them. That doesn't mean killing people and stealing stuff should be legal. That's common ground. Something that biblical scholars are going to debate for centuries that not every major religion, or even factions of that religion can agree with aren't, and that's for good reason. Could you imagine if all conflicting religious teachings, especially implied and exploited by certain leaders? Chaos. An unAmerican police state that would rival anything the Middle East has. There's a reason why we don't let Doomsday Cult leaders make ritualistic mass suicide legal.

Not to sound like a downer but at this point I'm not sure what either side has accomplished in this situation...besides choosing sides of course. That seems to be all we're good at in this country lately, lol.

Not to sound like a downer but at this point I'm not sure what either side has accomplished in this situation...besides choosing sides of course. That seems to be all we're good at in this country lately, lol.

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The spotlight on the subject revealed that things are a lot different than most people thought. It also exposed a lot of cockroaches. I have been out for over two decades and even I have learned much!

Most importantly, that LGBT Americans are finally advancing to the next step in our Equal Rights movement.

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I do get that but I guess what I'm saying is the feuding shows no signs of dissipating and sometimes it feels like that's all there is. Conservatives and liberals need each other to fight with in order to have their identities and it's just destructive.

(Snickers profusely). Anyone thinking having a not white guy in office would improve race relations is completely out of their minds.

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I didn't say it would take a white guy in Office to improve race relations, that wasn't what I was saying at all; my point was that even though African Americans saw Obama's election as a huge step for them at the time, it seems as though his being president overall hasn't helped race relations in this country at all. Look at the Treyvon Martin shooting for example.

I didn't say it would take a white guy in Office to improve race relations, that wasn't what I was saying at all; my point was that even though African Americans saw Obama's election as a huge step for them at the time, it seems as though his being president overall hasn't helped race relations in this country at all. Look at the Treyvon Martin shooting for example.

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I have to say though some of what we call race issues in this country is really more like poverty issues. If we didn't have so many struggling areas in this country a lot of our problems would be improved.

I have to say though some of what we call race issues in this country is really more like poverty issues. If we didn't have so many struggling areas in this country a lot of our problems would be improved.

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Well, Obama HAS tried to improve the issues in that department, HOWEVER, Republicans seem to have this fear that helping the middle and lower class will mean having to take crowbars to their overflowing wallets, and we all know they don't want to lose one precious cent of the moolah they're just sitting on, so they stand in Obama's way any chance they can to make sure the poor stay poor, and instead, take the old holier than thou, "If these people are so poor, why don't they get off their butts and get a job" attitude, when there aren't even any jobs for them to get.

I do get that but I guess what I'm saying is the feuding shows no signs of dissipating and sometimes it feels like that's all there is. Conservatives and liberals need each other to fight with in order to have their identities and it's just destructive.

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It's par for the course three months before our Presidential Election. Eventually something was going to come along to bring this to the forefront of America's consciousness. I also think that the usual anti-gay activists have become accustomed to power that they no longer have in such numbers. Gays were expected to roll-over by now. That's not going to happen. This issue will eventually subside, but the equal rights cause has gained a steam that will continue.